TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The world’s largest precious metals streamlining firm Silver Wheaton this week announced that it had recently committed to provide financial support for corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in mining communities where Silver Wheaton bought its precious metals.

The Vancouver-based company, which provides streaming deals through which miners get cash upfront in exchange for agreeing to, in the future, sell metal to the streaming company at a set price, said, as part of its own CSR programme, it had committed to supporting programmes led by two of its partners, Primero Mining and Barrick Gold.

"Silver Wheaton has always been committed to building strong partnerships and as our company has grown, we have become increasingly focused on supporting the communities around the mines where we have streaming agreements," said president and CEO Randy Smallwood.

Despite not specifying the amounts the company would provide its partners with, Smallwood said Silver Wheaton would provide support to Primero and Barrick for their community projects in Mexico and Argentina, respectively.

“These financial contributions will positively impact the communities where their mining operations are located, providing long-term, sustainable benefits. We look forward to seeing the benefits of these projects and are committed to creating new agreements with existing and future mining partners,” he added.

Silver Wheaton is helping its partners to finance two key initiatives. Primero has committed to building three community facilities in Tayoltita, Mexico, a town located near the San Dimas mine. The project, which is expected to provide much-needed recreational opportunities for the community of Tayoltita, is forecast to be complete in 2015.

Barrick has committed to executing an irrigation project in the communities of Jachal and Iglesia, in San Juan province, Argentina,  which are near the Veladero mine and Pascua-Lama project. Barrick's aim is to enhance water conservation and agricultural outputs by conserving and optimising water resources through implementing drip and sprinkling irrigation technology. This project is also expected to be complete in 2015.